USEFUL PROJECTS. 



659 



in that country is but a bad trade 

 as it must be a good hand to 

 make more than at the rate of a 

 barrel a day. The barrels cost the 

 burner about Is. 3d. British ster- 

 ling, each. The lar-makers are in 

 general very poor, except here and 

 there one, who has an opportunity 

 of making it near the water-side. 

 Pitch is made by either boiling 

 the tar till it comes to a proper 

 thickness or else by burning it. 

 The latter is done by digging a 

 hole in the ground, and lining it 

 with brick; it is then filled with 

 tar, and they set fire to it, and 

 allow it to burn till they judge it 

 has burnt enough, which is known 

 by dipping a stick into it, and let- 

 ting it cool : when burnt enough 

 they put a cover over it, which 

 stops it close, and puts out the fire. 

 Five barrels of green tar will 

 make two of pitch ; and it will 

 take two barrels of other tar to 

 make one of pitch. 



N. B. The foregoing observa- 

 tions respecting tar and pitch, are 

 copied from a memorandum made 

 by me at Suffolk, in Virginia, on 

 the borders of North Carolina, 

 April 23, 1792, and are the result 

 of the inquiries and observations 

 I made on the subject whilst in 

 Carolina. 



Wilmington, N. C. 

 April 13, 1792. 



In conversation with a Mr. 

 Hogg, who had been settled there 

 and at Fayette-ville before the 

 war, I learnt that pitch-pine tim- 

 ber growing on the sands was the 

 best, and that it was reckoned to 

 be better if cut in the winter be- 

 fore the sap rises in the tree. 



H. B. Way. 



Sir ;— It affords me much plea- 

 sure to learn that my communi- 

 cation on the extraction of tur- 

 pentine from the Scotch fir has 

 been thought worthy of the con- 

 sideration of the society ; and it 

 will be highly gratifying to me, 

 if it should induce persons who 

 havefconsiderable plantations, to 

 try it on such a scale as to 

 ascertain to what extent it might 

 prove beneficial in this country. 

 The experiment should be tried 

 on trees so situated as to be con- 

 veniently examined every day, 

 and the turpentine collected in 

 the hollows removed as often as 

 possible to prevent its being in- 

 jured or wasted by the rain. I 

 think, that during the American 

 war, some importations of tur- 

 pentine were made from Russia 

 and Sweden ; and if so, it must 

 have been extracted from what 

 we call the Scotch fir, in a colder 

 climate than this. The article 

 called Venice turpentine, which 

 is brought from Carinthia and 

 Carniola, is extracted there from 

 the larch tree ; and it might pro- 

 bably answer to try to produce it 

 from the larch trees grown in 

 Great Britain, in the same way as 

 I have collected the turpentine 

 from the Scotch fir. 



Respecting the wood of the 

 Scotch fir being injured by the 

 extraction of the turpentine from 

 it, I should rather think that it 

 would, on the contrary, be the 

 better for it ; as all those who use 

 deals from Scotch fir, in this 

 neighbourhood, complain that it 

 is too full of turpentine to work 

 well. The fact might be ascer- 

 tained by the piece of timber 

 which I sent to the society, as, if 

 it was wished to preserve that 



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